


a piece of my soul (don't let go)

by akaashilily



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Idiots in Love, M/M, Pining, Summer Camp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:48:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24637075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akaashilily/pseuds/akaashilily
Summary: Miya Atsumu sold his soul to Sakusa Kiyoomi at the ripe young age of thirteen. He didn’t plan for it to happen, but when Atsumu looks back at his life, it’s hard to say that it wasn’t fate.On the last night of Atsumu's seventh year of attendance as a camper at Camp Haikyuu, Sakusa and Atsumu pinky promised that they would always protect each other and never leave one another underneath the stars. They sealed the deal with a kiss.That was the last time Atsumu ever saw his curly haired friend.Fast forward five years and Miya Atsumu is a camp counselor at the same camp. Sakusa Kiyoomi walks back into his life and puts the entire summer is jeopardy.orThe Summer Camp AU that no one asked for!
Relationships: Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Comments: 27
Kudos: 85





	1. a new beginning (& the end of the world)

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! this is only my second fic that i've written (ever) and i'm really excited for you guys to read this. basically, this story is going to span over one month while they're at the summer camp. i hope you enjoy!

Miya Atsumu sold his soul to Sakusa Kiyoomi at the ripe young age of thirteen. He didn’t plan for it to happen, but when Atsumu looks back at his life, it’s hard to say that it wasn’t fate. 

Sakusa’s family owned Camp Haikyuu, a month long summer camp in the middle of nowhere that was hours away from any other form of civilization. Atsumu attended religiously since he was a mere seven years old. Sakusa and Atsumu were fast friends, despite their clashing personalities: Sakusa was quiet, while Atsumu was boisterous. 

On the last night of Atsumu's seventh year of attendance, Sakusa took him to their secret spot by the lake. It was their tradition to meet up and spend the night together under the stars before they were separated for the rest of the year. However, this time, Sakusa and Atsumu pinky promised that they would always protect each other and never leave one another. They sealed the deal with a kiss.

That was the last time Atsumu ever saw his curly haired friend.

-

“Let’s get this show on the road!” Atsumu yelled, jumping out of Osamu’s moving car and onto the campground. The car was only moving at a measly five miles per hour, but by the way Osamu glared at him, the car must’ve been barreling down the dirt road. The grey haired twin parks the car and exits, giving his brother a harsh shove and an even harsher reprimand. 

“You could’ve gotten hurt, dumbass!” Osamu scolds, to which Atsumu sticks his tongue out.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Bokuto Koutarou, a fellow Camp Haikyuu regular, yells at them as he climbs out of his own car. He is dressed exactly like what a stereotypical camp counselor should look like: khaki shorts, long white socks, a camp shirt, and a Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned over it all. He wears a colorful bucket hat, his hair uncharacteristically down instead of spiked up. It’s no wonder to Atsumu why Bokuto is often put on the front of their camp pamphlets, he practically screams camp counselor.

“What’s up, big guy?” Atsumu asks, wrapping his owl-like friend up into a hug. Bokuto uses his beefy arms to pick Atsumu up, squeezing him with little regard to his lungs.

“Bok-kun. Can’t...breath…” Atsumu chokes out, causing Bokuto to release him and laugh loudly. The blond begins to cough, giving the black and white haired man a pat on the shoulder. He really should know better by now; Bokuto can’t control himself or his muscles when it comes to hugs, unless the recipient is Akaashi. Bokuto is a sucker for Akaashi.

“Ay, shithead! Come help me with the bags!” Osamu yells at his twin as he pops the trunk. Atsumu jogs over after recovering from his coughing fit, rolling his eyes.

“Not strong enough yerself?” Atsumu jeers, grabbing his bag and shouldering it. Osamu growls while grabbing his own bag, then shuts the trunk with a little (a lot) more force than necessary. The twins loved each other, despite how they acted. But, they were at each other’s throats 90% of the time.

“Come on, guys! I want to go check out who’s here already!” Bokuto exclaims, wildly gesturing for the Miya twins to follow him. They exchanged a knowing look, then followed the eccentric man down the dirt road and towards the office building.

“What have you been up to lately?” Atsumu asks Bokuto, who is kicking up dirt as they walk. Osamu looks mildly amused, but also annoyed at the dust getting in his eyes and mouth.

“Volleyball. I’ve been getting recruited by some teams,” Bokuto tells them. The vast majority of the staff at Camp Haikyuu played volleyball, which made the country seem a little smaller and connected; some of their teams would even play each other over the seasons. If Atsumu were a better person, he would let Bokuto have his moment to shine by applauding his recruitment. But, sadly, he was not a better person.

“I’m getting recruited, too,” Atsumu announces, a proud, bordering on smug, grin on his face. Osamu rolls his eyes, mumbling something under his breath at his brother’s antics. 

“Really? That’s awesome! Maybe we’ll play against each other...or with each other!” Bokuto exclaims, not missing a beat. Atsumu nods along, thinking about having one of the nation’s top aces at his disposal.  _ It could be worse _ , he thinks.

Bokuto is the first inside, too excited to see who arrived before them. Osamu shoves Atsumu out of the way, allowing for the grey haired twin to enter before the blond, much to the latter’s displeasure. When Atsumu finally enters the room, he sees Bokuto engulfing Akaashi in a hug, like they haven’t seen each other in years (they have seen each other recently, in fact).

The office isn’t a terribly large space, with a counter where the receptionist sits and a few couches for visitors. Osamu collapses on a couch next to a few other familiar faces: Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio. While they’re a year younger than Atsumu, he still found them easy enough to get along with. Behind the counter is Shimizu Kiyoko, looking as stoic as ever while the boys mess around on the couches.

Atsumu ambles on over to the counter, leaning on it. Kiyoko raises an eyebrow at him, as if asking  _ Can I help you? _

“Do you know the cabin assignments, by chance?” Atsumu asks, keeping his voice low. Every year, the cabin assignments for the counselors were given at random, so Atsumu ended up co-counseling with various different people over the past few years. His first year, he was put with Osamu. In short, it was a disaster. From that year forward, no matter how random the assignments were, the Miya twins were banned from counseling together.

“I do,” Kiyoko replies, picking up the list. At the sound of the paper, the whole room falls silent and everyone’s attention is on the black haired beauty behind the counter. She doesn’t look fazed by the attention.

“Osamu, you are in the staff quarters because you are a cook,” Kiyoko begins the list. “Bokuto and Akaashi are in Cabin 1. Hinata and Kageyama are in Cabin 9.”

Bokuto has wrapped Akaashi up in a hug, jumping up and down in joy at the prospect of being able to co-counsel with Akaashi. Hinata and Kageyama high five, both grinning wildly at each other. Even Osamu looks pleased at his placement, despite knowing damn well that he wasn’t going to be a counselor as well as a cook. However, Atsumu frowns at his assignment not being announced.

“Where am I?” Atsumu asks, growing impatient. Kiyoko frowns at the paper, making Atsumu’s heartbeat increase tenfold. The anticipation is killing him. He tries to remind himself that it’s just his co-counselor, not the person he’s going to marry, but it doesn’t help.

“There isn’t a name by yours. You’re in Cabin 7,” Kiyoko tells him. He’s  _ alone _ ? That’s never happened before and it’s not like there’s ever a shortage of people who want the position. In fact, there’s often too many people that they have to turn away applications. Everyone once again falls silent in confusion at this, their celebration quickly forgotten.

It wasn’t the end of the world for Atsumu, but he knew it wouldn’t be fun to round up all of those campers by himself. He liked sharing the room with a friend, someone that he would actually be able to have an intelligent conversation with.

“Why?” Is all Atsumu says. Kiyoko shrugs, her eyes flickering between the paper and Atsumu. 

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” Osamu speaks up. “Can we put our stuff in the quarters?”

“Yes, then return here. I need help with the finishing touches for the camp,” Kiyoko says. The group scatters, all heading towards the cabins. Kageyama and Hinata race towards their cabin, yelling the whole time. Bokuto has elected to carry Akaashi on his back, while also carrying both of their bags. Osamu hits Atsumu on the back of his head as he heads off, trailing behind Bokuto.

Atsumu is left in the office, frowning to himself. He takes one, two moments before jogging to catch up to Osamu. He isn’t quite sure why this bothers him so much, but it rubs him the wrong way.

The walk to the cabins comes to an end and the twins split up, with Osamu heading to the staff quarters and Atsumu heading towards Cabin 7. All of the cabins are wood painted a pale green color, which has chipped over the years. Atsumu opens the door to Cabin 7 and walks in, smiling to himself.

Not that Atsumu would ever admit it, but he loved his job and he loved being around kids (especially those that looked up to him). 

The blond threw his bag on a bed in the corner, taking the top bunk. He decided that since he wasn’t going to have a co-counselor, he could use the bottom bunk to store his stuff. It worked out perfectly in that sense, Atsumu guesses.

Each cabin held fourteen kids and two counselors, with eight bunk beds situated in two rows. The bunk beds aren’t insanely old, but they certainly aren’t new either. The wood they were built with is sturdy enough that they aren’t close to collapse, so Atsumu doesn’t feel unsafe sleeping on the top bunk. He decides that he’ll make his bed later; now, he has to go help Kiyoko.

With one last look at the cabin he’ll be living in for the next month, Atsumu takes off back to the office. 

-

Atsumu shortly regrets his earlier enthusiasm to help get the camp ready for the next day. While it was just the finishing touches, Atsumu got stuck cleaning out the canoes and kayaks that were forgotten for 11 months. Bokuto was instructed to help him, but he was doing more talking than working, droning on about Akaashi,

“...and when he asked me for the bottom bunk, I just couldn’t say no!” Bokuto rambles on. “It was so cute. His lips moved so delicately, it was...it was like...what’s delicate?”

“Glass?” Atsumu suggests, hosing down the inside of a canoe. He tried his hardest to sound interested, but there’s only so much he can do in this heat.

“Glass!” Bokuto exclaims, happily. He sighs dreamily, leaning against a canoe and looking off into the distance. Atsumu considers his options. He could let Bokuto live in his dream world and finish cleaning all of the canoes and kayaks by himself. Or he could spray Bokuto with the hose.

Atsumu chooses option number two and aims the hose at his unsuspecting friend. As soon as the water makes contact with Bokuto, the black and white haired man screams bloody murder. Atsumu was expecting a response, but by the sheer force of Bokuto yelling in combination with the wet ground under him, the blond slips and falls on his ass. 

Bokuto’s screaming turns into laughter, which is somehow just as loud and obnoxious. Atsumu groans, rubbing his lower back. Luckily, he hadn’t landed on the canoe. That would’ve hurt  _ a lot _ worse.

“Yeah, yeah. Quit yer laughin’!” Atsumu growls, climbing to his feet. He looks at his butt, trying to  _ ass _ ess the damage. Luckily, his pants are largely unaffected by his unfortunate spill, with only a few spots of mud. Atsumu does his best to wipe them off, sending Bokuto a sharp glare.

“Are you okay, ‘Tsum-’Tsum?” Bokuto asks, a large grin still plastered on his face. Atsumu’s glare intensifies, but it has little to no effect on the man in front of him.

“Just peachy,” Atsumu grumbles, going back to cleaning the canoe.

“I promise that I’ll try to tone it down with the Akaashi talk,” Bokuto says and his voice sounds so sincere that it physically pains Atsumu. He almost wishes that Bokuto would flip him off and continue to talk about the object of his affection. It’s not that Atsumu was incapable of dealing with emotions, but he frequently chooses not to. It made it easier to get through the day.

“...Thanks.” Atsumu goes back to spraying down the canoe he was working on before he decided to attack his friend.

“Any romance in your life, ‘Tsum-’Tsum?” Bokuto asks, cleaning out a kayak. Atsumu has been asked this question many times this past year and he always says no. Because that’s the truth. Atsumu was a popular guy at his high school and wracked up countless confessions, much to Osamu’s dismay. However, each time someone would say that they liked him, he would shoot them down with the reminder that they didn’t really know him at all. No one knew him except Osamu and Sakusa, and he knew exactly what getting emotionally involved with Sakusa did. It caused him to leave.

And, in all honesty (because that’s all Atsumu has at this point), he had sold his soul to Sakusa too long ago to reclaim his heart. He lost the receipt anyways.

  
But, he couldn’t admit any of that. So, instead, he says something different.

“Nope. I’m a man who can’t be tamed!” Atsumu proclaims, grinning at Bokuto. Bokuto laughs at him and Atsumu is glad that he doesn’t ask anymore questions like that for the duration of their task.

Once all of the canoes and kayaks are clean and hung up in the shed, Bokuto and Atsumu head back towards the office. Bokuto suggested a race, but Atsumu was not part of the freak duo and did not have their abundant energy, so he declined and they walked together instead.

“I wonder who all is coming back this year,” Atsumu wonders aloud, kicking a pebble on the path. Bokuto hums.

“I know that Tsukki and Yamaguchi are coming. So is Kuroo! He managed to convince Kenma to come back, even after the incident last year,” Bokuto lists off all of the people he can think of. Atsumu got along with all of them, but they were Bokuto’s friends before they were his. Atsumu shook the thought off, deciding that he was going to try to relax and enjoy his first day back at Camp Haikyuu. 

When they arrived back at the office, the sun had begun to go down in the sky. While the campers haven’t arrived at the camp, the staff has all gathered around and the camp looks  _ alive _ . Atsumu absolutely loves the hustle and bustle of everything.

The night before Camp Haikyuu opens is sacred and spent the same way every year: a staff party. Since some of the staff is underage, there are coolers of soda and water. For the “adults”, if they can be called that, there is alcohol. However, the alcohol supply is limited due to the fact that they have to get up bright and early tomorrow to welcome the buses of campers. 

Atsumu splits off from Bokuto, moving to find Osamu in the crowd of people. He sees many faces that he knows. Kageyama and Hinata are throwing chips at each other and trying to catch them in their mouths. Both are surprisingly succeeding and Atsumu has to give them props. It does look pretty cool, if he’s being honest. Iwaizumi Hajime looks positively done already as Oikawa Tooru chats about something mindless (if Atsumu had to guess, probably about his love life, or lack thereof).    
  
When Atsumu finds Osamu, he is sitting on the steps of the staff lounge with Suna Rintarou, their lifelong friend, and Sugawara Koushi, Osamu’s fellow cook. They’re all nursing various beverages, which Atsumu (correctly) assumes is alcohol. Once Osamu spots Atsumu coming, he nods in acknowledgement. 

“‘Sup, Rin,” Atsumu greets him, then smiles at Suga. “Hey, Suga! Long time, no see.”

“Hello, Atsumu,” Suga greets him, raising his cup in a greeting. “Well, I need to go find Daichi and Asahi. See you guys later!”

Suga stands up, walking away and waving at the group. Atsumu collapses onto the stairs where Suga was sitting. Osamu raises an eyebrow, then takes another swig of his drink. Suna grins at Atsumu.

“Feeling okay?” Suna asks, leaning on Osamu’s shoulder. Atsumu grunts, closing his eyes and laying his head on the wooden porch. Suna snickers and they resume their conversation, but this time in hushed voices so that Atsumu can’t make out nearly anything that they are saying. He opens an eye, not so gently shoving Osamu.

“What?” Osamu looks over at him sharply, obviously not appreciating the intrusion.

“What are ya two whispering ‘bout?” Atsumu asks, suspicious. Osamu and Suna were always close, teaming up to mock Atsumu at every milestone they shared. Suna and Osamu were there to laugh at him when Atsumu tripped and broke his nose in the middle of the school day; when Atsumu lost his first tooth trying to eat a rock; when Atsumu dressed as a vampire for an entire week straight; when Atsumu - okay, the point has been made. Atsumu has done a lot of embarrassing things in his life and Suna was present for all of them, an extension of the grey haired twin who he couldn’t seem to shake.

Suna and Osamu look at each other, continuing their conversation with their eyes. This only serves to anger Atsumu more, who stands up abruptly and glares at them.

“Fine! I’ll find some other friends to hang out with,” Atsumu declares, marching off to find Bokuto, Hinata,  _ someone _ that wasn’t named Miya Osamu or Suna Rintarou. He eventually stumbles upon Tsukishima Kei and Yamaguchi Tadashi, the latter chattering about something he saw earlier in the day. When Atsumu clears his throat, they both stop talking and look over at him, confused.

“Need something?” Tsukishima asks. Atsumu found it a little difficult to get along with him, as he didn’t care what anyone (except maybe Yamaguchi) thought and therefore wouldn’t even give a reaction to Atsumu. Yamaguchi was a lot more agreeable, even if he stumbled over his worlds when Atsumu addressed him.

“Nope,” Atsumu pops the ‘p’. “Don’t stop your conversation on my account.”

Tsukishima eyes him suspiciously, then motions for Yamaguchi to continue.

“W-Well, Bokuto-san was t-telling me that...he was telling me t-that Kuroo-san was going to h-help…” Yamaguchi’s gaze keeps flickering between Tsukishima and Atsumu, causing the latter to sigh and rub his face.

“Look, I’m not gonna bite ya! I’m just here to talk,” Atsumu interrupts. Interrupting Yamaguchi was probably helping him right now anyways. “Osamu and Suna were givin’ me too much shit.”

Yamaguchi nods, then starts over.

“Bokuto-san told me t-that Kuroo-san was going to help me with my blocks at some point,” Yamaguchi tells them with renewed confidence, a small smile making its way to his face. He still doesn’t look Atsumu in the eye. Tsukishima narrows his eyes, betraying his true feelings.

“Aren’t ya a blocker, too, Tsuk-kun?” Atsumu asks, grinning. He knows he shouldn’t press harder and annoy the tall blond, but he can’t help himself. Atsumu needs some entertainment and this won’t kill either of them. Hopefully.

“Yes, I am,” Tsukishima replies. “I believe I’ve blocked a few of your spikes before.”

Atsumu huffs, holding his hands up as if to say that he’ll back off. Yamaguchi looks between the two of them, confused but not enough to ask about what’s going on.

“Well, I’ll see ya know later!” Atsumu retreats away from them with a wave in the hopes of finding a better conversationalist. He passes by Bokuto, who is fawning over Akaashi, Kuroo, who is also fawning over Akaashi, Kenma, who is sitting behind Akaashi, and Akaashi, who is practically asleep. Atsumu knows that Akaashi is beautiful, but he isn’t quite sure that he would worship the man like the others do. He’s not as beautiful as...whatever, 

Atsumu decides that no one here is worth his conversation tonight, so he walks down the path, away from the party and towards the lake. He crosses over the bridge, rounding the body of water and walking for a few seconds, minutes, hours. He loses track of time, but before he knows it, Atsumu has arrived at their spot, ducking under bright yellow caution tape (he put that there to make sure no one would intrude on their spot). He isn’t surprised that he ended up here, he always does at some point every year, but never this early. He missed Sakusa a little extra this year, especially after seeing Osamu with Suna and Akaashi with his fanclub. He feels...incomplete. 

Atsumu sits down, settling in and looking over the lake. The sunset reflects onto the water, the blue turning into shades of orange and purple instead. Atsumu picks up a flat rock and skips it, smirking to himself at the four skips. Despite no one being around, he feels accomplished.  _ Suck on that, ‘Samu _ , he thinks to himself. 

The spot isn’t anything special. It’s wedged in between a few large rocks and trees, the trees providing enough protection from the rain while also leaving room for stargazing. It wasn’t anything special, but it meant everything to Atsumu. Ever since Sakusa disappeared, Atsumu religiously visited their spot every year. He marked his height on a tree with each visit, like he used to do with Sakusa. He skipped rocks, just like Sakusa taught him. He looked at the stars and remembered the constellations that Sakusa showed him. In the years after Sakusa disappeared, this spot became him and gave Atsumu comfort where everything else failed. Osamu tried, he really had, but he couldn’t fill the Sakusa sized whole in Atsumu’s heart, in Atsumu’s soul. 

Atsumu picked up another rock, skipping it. He couldn’t bend his wrist like his curly haired companion, but he tried. When he released the rock, it went four more skips then sunk. Atsumu frowned, moving to pick up another. He threw it. Four. Atsumu repeated the process over and over again until he ran out of flat rocks that he could find. The sun had gone down by now and Atsumu was exhausted. He could feel his eyes drooping and his shoulders slumping. 

_ One more and I’ll head back _ , Atsumu told himself, then prepared himself to skip the rock. Before he let go of the rock, he heard the tell-tale noise of a rock skipping over the water. Atsumu frowns, lowering his hand and dropping the rock. No one knew about this place and it was far enough into the property that no one would find it. 

_ Aha, right. It must be a murderer _ . Atsumu crouched down and grabbed a sharp rock, staying silent in hopes that the perpetrator would skip another rock and reveal his location. After a few seconds, another rock hits the water, skipping six whole times before sinking. If the blond wasn’t so sure he was going to die, he’d be mighty impressed. Atsumu creeps around the bushes, rocks, and trees, heading towards where the rock was thrown. He makes sure to monitor his breathing, ensuring that it isn't too loud. Finally, all of the horror movies that he was forced to watch by Osamu would come in handy. 

Everything is quiet except for the occasion crunch of twigs and leaves below Atsumu’s feet as he sneaks towards the general direction of where the rock came from. As he approaches the shore, he spots a man squatting on the ground, searching for a rock. He must be the murderer! Atsumu readies his rock, coming out from the trees and into the open. He then clears his throat.

“What are ya doin’ here?” Atsumu asks, trying his best to sound scary. The man spooks a little, standing and turning around.

_ Tall. Hot. _ Atsumu swallows, accepting his fate of getting his head smashed in by this handsome stranger. 

“What are  _ you _ doing here?” The man asks and the voice sounds all too familiar. In fact, the hair looks similar to a certain someone that Atsumu has to do a double take (it looks the same the second time around). Atsumu furrows his eyebrows, scanning the person’s face in the gentle moonlight. He shakes his head.

_ I must be dreaming _ , Atsumu settles on, as the stranger has the exact same moles on his face that Sakusa did. But, Sakusa is gone and this man is invading their space.

“I asked ya first!” Atsumu exclaims, holding his rock out threateningly. The man raises a perfect eyebrow at that, pushing the rock away with his own rock. Atsumu notices that the man’s hands are gloved. As if it can’t get any weirder...

“I work here,” The man replies, simply.

“I work here, too. Who are you?” Atsumu asks, narrowing his eyes. If he wasn’t trying so hard to convince himself that this man wasn’t Sakusa, then this situation would make entirely too much sense. But, Atsumu isn’t perfect and he has flaws, so what? If he wants to convince himself that Sakusa doesn’t exist here anymore, he is well within his rights.

“Sakusa Kiyoomi,” The man - Sakusa - says his name and Atsumu decides that the world is ending.

Suddenly, the moon is red and meteors are falling, sending large waves from the lake. The water is cold and unwelcoming, but Atsumu doesn’t fight it as it drags him under and strangles him, taking every last breath away from him in one foul swoop. He doesn’t fight it when the ground breaks out from under him and he is falling, falling, falling down an endless hole in darkness, with nothing to light his way. Atsumu accepts his fate when the world bursts into flames and explodes from the inside out.

But, the world doesn’t end and Atsumu is left staring at the man he sold his soul to five years ago. 

“No,” Atsumu ever so eloquently chokes out, his head swimming. His exhaustion mixes with whatever he is feeling right now and Atsumu can’t take it. 

He can see the realization hit Sakusa just by watching his eyebrows and he hates himself for it. He hates that after all of this time, Atsumu still knows Sakusa’s tells so easily. Maybe Sakusa hates it, too.

  
Atsumu isn’t sure what he expects Sakusa to do in their reunion, but it certainly isn’t Sakusa’s face becoming devoid of any emotion and addressing him by his family name.

“Miya. Pleasure to-” Sakusa starts, but Atsumu isn’t around to hear the rest of it. His legs begin to move before his mind does and now he is a hundred feet away, moving down the shore fast, fast, faster. His shoes are getting wet but Atsumu can’t find it in himself to care about the shoes that he wouldn’t let Osamu look at for fear that he would dirty them before they got to camp. The only thing he cares about right now is getting away from here as fast as he possibly can.

He doesn’t know when it started raining, but he feels drops that run down his cheeks and fall off of his chin. 

Atsumu sees the lights of the camp in the distance and he breaks out into a sprint. His legs ache from the day but Atsumu’s head aches more. The party is over and most people are in their residence for the night, but Atsumu needs to find Osamu. He looks around wildly, earning a few worrying glances from the remaining staff. 

Atsumu finds his brother leaving the staff bathhouse. When they make eye contact, Osamu  _ knows _ . They don’t need to talk to understand each other. The grey haired twin rushes over to him, leading Atsumu to Cabin 7 gently, giving those who have gathered to look at the blond a pleasant, yet threatening smile to warn them to fuck off.

Once the twins are safely inside Cabin 7, Osamu ushers him over to the unmade bed and instructs him to sit down while Osamu puts the sheets on. Atsumu numbly nods, trying to control his breathing. He focuses on the smell of the old cabin and the sight of the dim light flickering and the salty taste of his tears and the sound of Osamu making the bed and the feeling of the bottom bunk’s mattress under his fingers. He calms himself down gradually, blinking away the tears and panic. 

“‘Tsumu? The bed’s all made. C’mere,” Osamu says and Atsumu climbs the ladder, collapsing onto the bed. Osamu sits at the edge, a comforting hand in his twin’s hair, like their mom used to do. 

Atsumu takes a deep breath, inhaling the scent of his pillow. 

  
He falls asleep and the world isn’t ending.


	2. fire in the night sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So, you fell in the water?” Suna asks Atsumu at dinner, causing him to groan and cover his face, his hair still damp from the traumatic event earlier.
> 
> “Yes, I fell in the water,” Atsumu confirms, his voice low and embarrassed. 
> 
> “So, it’d be on the security footage,” Suna wonders aloud, tapping his chin before taking another bite of his dinner.
> 
> or
> 
> Days 2&3 of Camp Haikyuu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys!! when i originally mapped out the fic, i did not plan for the chapters to be this long, but here we are! i really hope you like the fic thus far, i spent a lot of time planning and writing this chapter :-)

When Miya Atsumu wakes up the next day, he can almost convince himself that last night was a dream spurred on by his overactive imagination and exhaustion. His morning alarm goes off, the cabin filling with the noise of Red Velvet and for a moment, everything is normal. Atsumu opens his eyes, staring at the ceiling. His bed is warm from his body heat and he doesn’t want to leave, but he takes his showers in the morning and the campers will be arriving before he knows it.

After a few moments of contemplating the consequences of staying in bed all morning, Atsumu sits up and climbs down the ladder. He knew Osamu had come into his room last night and made his bed for him, but he was unaware that Osamu also made the bottom bunk. Atsumu shrugged, deciding to ask him about it later after his shower.

The blond grabs a change of clothes from his bag, as well as his shower caddy and heads out of the cabin and towards the staff bath. The sky is nice and clear, without a cloud in sight; the sun is blinding, the heat of the rays warming up Atsumu’s skin and face. The walk to the bathhouse wasn’t far, but it wasn’t the most convenient one. While the camper’s showers and bathroom were in the middle of the rows of cabins, the staff bathhouse was across the dirt road, next to the office and the medical tent. But, Atsumu didn’t mind it. It was often a very good way to wake himself up.

Once he reaches the bathhouse, Atsumu can hear and see people milling around, in various states of disarray. He flinches upon seeing his brother drying his hair, obviously exhausted. He definitely owed Osamu one.

“‘Tsum-’Tsum!” Bokuto yelled in greeting, causing the whole room to participate in a group flinch. The owl-like man was shirtless with beads of water still present on his chest. Atsumu could appreciate the sight, but he also didn’t appreciate the loud noise this early in the morning. 

“Bokuto-san, you are being very loud,” Akaashi tells Bokuto, causing him to grin sheepishly and rub the back of his neck. Akaashi is obviously unbothered by the shirtlessness and Atsumu wonders if it's because this isn’t an uncommon sight or Akaashi is simply a good actor. 

He isn’t given much time to think about it before Osamu comes over to him, slapping him on the back very hard. Neither of them would admit it, but Osamu was obviously worried and this was his way of expressing it. Atsumu gives a reassuring smile and Osamu nods before leaving the bathhouse. 

The blond quickly showers and changes into shorts and a black camp t-shirt, towel drying his hair then styling it in the same way that he always does. Most people have filtered out of the bathhouse at this point, leaving Atsumu alone with his thoughts. 

The hot water had helped, but his face was still puffy and swollen from his unfortunate breakdown last night, spurred on by the lackluster return of his former (more than) best friend. Atsumu wasn’t quite sure why he was back and he wasn’t quite sure that he wanted to know, unless it was something that would ruin the blond’s summer if he wasn’t aware. With his luck, Sakusa’s return would ruin Atsumu’s summer, no matter how hard the latter tried to avoid that. 

Atsumu sighed, staring at himself in the mirror. He had changed in the five years that Sakusa was gone. He was taller and more full around the edges; his muscles were filled in and more toned. His hair color had changed from a black to a mustard yellow. His jawline was more defined. What didn’t change was his sour and repulsive personality and his need for validation. From the small reunion that he had with Sakusa the night prior, he could already tell that his friend - his  _ ex _ friend - had changed leaps and bounds more than Atsumu had. Atsumu didn’t want to know just how much he had changed, that would ruin his fond memories that he had stored in the back of his mind for rainy days.

Atsumu breaks his staring contest with himself and rubs his face. Regardless of who Sakusa was now, Atsumu was most definitely not going to change himself. He had embarrassed himself last night with a rare show of intense emotions and he decided that Sakusa was no longer privy to Atsumu’s most vulnerable feelings. 

The blond takes one more look at himself then marches out of the bathhouse with a revived determination to make this summer fun. He almost forgets that he needs to return his things to his cabin in all of his thoughts.

Atsumu all but sprints to Cabin 7 in order to throw his stuff in his bag and return to the office to meet up with the other staff before the campers arrive. Meeting the kids that he would spend the next month with always filled Atsumu’s stomach with butterflies. As silly as it was, he wanted them to look up to him and admire his skills, like he had admired his counselors when he was younger. 

He grabs his drawstring bag, full of sunscreen, sunglasses, and his empty water bottle, and heads out of his cabin, shutting the door behind him. Atsumu checked his watch, noting that the time was 7:50 AM. While he was usually late (and it was expected of him by now), he didn’t want to keep up his reputation. So, the blond found himself running across the dirt road towards the office, where the majority of the camp staff are loitering. His friends are sitting, standing, hanging out on the wooden porch and Atsumu makes the assumption that some of them are sitting inside with Kiyoko. 

Atsumu doesn’t see his brother outside, so he heads into the office, dodging people left and right. Once he is inside the building, the nice feeling of the air conditioner against his skin puts an even bigger smile on his face. 

He spots Osamu sitting on a couch with Suna, chatting with Oikawa about who knows what. Probably volleyball, since that's what Oikawa eats, lives, and breathes. But hey, who is Atsumu to judge? So does he. 

“Hey guys,” Atsumu announces his presence, grinning at the three as they turn their attention to him. Osamu crinkles his nose in faux annoyance, but Atsumu pays no mind to him, instead nodding to Suna and waving to Oikawa.

“Atsu-chan! What a pleasure to see you,” Oikawa tells him, not standing up from his seat. The brunette looks as positively lively and annoying as usual.

“Good morning. Chipper as always, Tooru-chan,” Atsumu greets him, sitting next to Suna on the couch. The black haired man immediately kicks his feet up on Atsumu’s lap, resting his head against Osamu’s shoulder with a smirk on his face. The grey haired twin doesn’t react, focusing on the conversation instead; Atsumu decides that he’ll be gracious just this once and let it slide, but he does give Suna a pointed look.

“What were ya talkin’ about?” Atsumu asks, picking at the hairs on Suna’s leg, then dodging Suna’s attacks when he tries to get the blond to stop.   
  


“Sak-” Oikawa begins, then is promptly hit in the face with a pillow. Atsumu looks up to find Osamu glaring at the brunette, who is rubbing his face.

“Osa-chan! Rude!” Oikawa complains, whining loudly. Osamu rolls his eyes. Atsumu doesn’t need them to continue to know exactly what - or  _ who _ \- they were talking about. The blond does his best to put on a smile as he leans back on the couch. 

“I’m a big boy, ‘Samu. I can handle it,” Atsumu declares, spreading his arms out over the back of the couch. Suna gives him a questioning look that Atsumu ignores.

“Have you heard the rumors?” Oikawa asks. It was no secret that Oikawa was an avid gossiper. He was Atsumu’s source of the initial gossip and rumors about why Sakusa had disappeared, some crazier than others (one even claimed that Sakusa drowned in the lake and his parents were covering it up).

“I have not.” Atsumu shifts in his seat, hoping that his friends wouldn't see his discomfort. No one said anything, so he marked it down in his mind as a success.

“I heard he spent the last five years in France. Can you believe that? All the way in France!” Oikawa exclaims, looking off into the distance and daydreaming, presumably about Paris and the Eiffel Tower. Or maybe about becoming a street mime.

“Why would he be in France?” Suna asks, confused. 

“I heard he went there for boarding school,” Oikawa tells them, snapping out of his Parisian daydream.

Atsumu opens his mouth to make a joke, a statement, something, he wasn’t quite sure yet. He doesn’t figure it out before Sakusa Kiyoomi himself walks out of the backroom and into the main room of the office, looking over the friends on the couch. He is oddly wearing a mask, a long sleeved shirt, and pants. Just by looking at his outfit, Atsumu would guess it’s a whole lot colder outside. Atsumu straightens up and their eyes meet. The blond tries his best to keep a relatively unreadable expression and he sees that Sakusa’s expression is nearly identical. Quite a pair.

“Good morning, Ki-chan!” Oikawa sings, ignoring the tension in the room as he twists himself around in his chair to wave at the curly haired man. 

“Hello,” Sakusa replies curtly. Atsumu thinks that he could at least pretend to be happy to see them all. Instead, he looks bored and unaffected, like he doesn’t want to be here. Atsumu has to bite his tongue to keep himself from making a snide comment.

The room falls into an awkward silence for one, two moments too long and Atsumu can’t stand it, but is powerless to change it. The tension is palpable 

Sakusa is the one to put them out of their misery.

“Suna. Miya twins. Oikawa.” Sakusa nods his head at them before shoving his hands in his pockets and leaving the office building, skillfully avoiding people touching him. Atsumu watches him leave, unable to peel his eyes off of his back, his hair, his legs. He doesn’t know how long he’s left staring at the door, but it’s long enough for Suna to remove his legs and stand, with the objective of leaving the office to greet the kids. 

“That was weird, right?” Oikawa asks as they all stand.

“Yeah, that was weird,” Atsumu says.  _ This is going to be a long summer _ , Atsumu doesn’t say.

-

The yellow buses roll in at approximately 9:03 AM and the camp staff stands on either side of the dirt road, clapping and cheering as they go by. The buses stop at the amphitheater and the kids pile out. Suddenly, the camp is full of life and nervous chatter and Atsumu feels weightless. He loves seeing the joy and excitement in every kid’s eyes as they file into the amphitheater for the opening ceremony.

Before the camp staff follows, Kiyoko has handed out name tags, a schedule, and a roster of all of the campers in their cabin for the counselors. Atsumu looks at his, a soft yellow color with “Miya Atsumu, Cabin 7 Counselor” written on it and vows to never lose it. He neatly folds up his list of campers and schedules and tucks it in his pocket before pinning his nametag to his shirt and following Osamu and Suna into the amphitheatre. 

The amphitheatre is outdoors and rather large, with an awning covering most of the seats with a nice, cool shade. The camp staff have reserved seating on the left side in the front, so that they can easily access the stage when they will be introduced to the campers.

Atsumu settles into his seat next to Osamu on one side and the aisle on the other. Against his better judgement, he looks around to see where everyone else was seated. Akaashi is squished between Bokuto and Kuroo, who are trying to hit each other; Kenma is seated on the other side of Kuroo, playing with the laces on his shoes boredly. Oikawa is sitting with Suga on his left and Iwaizumi on his right, chatting excitedly with the silver haired man. Iwaizumi is talking calmly with Daichi, who is seated next to him. Kageyama and Hinata are a row behind them, arguing about something nonsensical and wrestling, while Tsukishima and Yamaguchi laugh at them. Atsumu’s eyes finally fall on Sakusa, who is sitting by himself at the edge of the section staff section, purposely avoiding everyone.

They make eye contact and Atsumu thinks that the world has stopped. His cheeks heat up and he quickly turns back around in his seat, jamming his elbow against the back of his seat as he does so. Osamu and Suna look over at him, raising eyebrows as Atsumu curses, holding his elbow. He shakes his head, brushing them off. There was no way in hell that Atsumu was going to admit that he got caught staring at Sakusa.

Before either of them can even open their mouths to ask Atsumu about whatever he was doing, Sakusa Eito steps onto the stage and taps the microphone, catching everyone’s attention. The kids all fall silent.

“Hello and good morning, campers! Welcome to Camp Haikyuu,” Sakusa Eito greets them, smiling brightly. Atsumu was never a fan of the man. Despite being best friends with Sakusa at one point, Eito was always cold towards him and never told Atsumu where Sakusa had gone. Despite all of that, Eito was a very personable person when talking to the kids. He was a great faker.

“Today your journey of adventure and knowledge will begin. Each camper has been placed in a cabin that is on your nametag. If you are unsure, when everyone is dismissed at the end of the opening ceremony, come find me and I will help you find your counselor,” Eito explains. “Here at Camp Haikyuu, we have a tradition: today think of what you hope to get out of this camp and write it down to be placed in sky lanterns tonight, what will be sent off above the lake. You have all day to think about what you want to write down, then give the piece of paper with your hope written down to your counselor.”

Atsumu smiles bitterly at this. Every year since Sakusa left, he would hope that he would return to camp and return to Atsumu’s life. He supposes that it did come true, but not in the way that he wishes it did. But alas, Atsumu can’t win them all, he supposes.

He tunes out the rest of the opening ceremony in favor of fiddling with the friendship bracelets on his arms. Over the years, he has accrued many from his camp friends: Bokuto, Suna, Sakusa, Bokuto again, and Hinata. They were all pretty poorly made and worn out, except for the one that Sakusa made. Not that he would ever admit it, but he took special care of it to ensure that it wouldn’t get ruined by anything. Looking back at that, it seems pretty stupid of him if this is who Sakusa is now. 

Atsumu entertains the idea of sending his bracelet off with his cabin’s lantern.

Before Atsumu can finish debating with himself on the merits of sending an old friendship bracelet off into oblivion, the counselors are called to the stage to introduce themselves then gather their cabins.

Bokuto and Akaashi were called up first and they introduced themselves, Bokuto more enthusiastically than Akaashi. Once they finished their introductions, they stepped off of the stage and headed towards the exit of the amphitheater. The kids who were placed in Cabin 1 left their seats and left with them.

  
The rest of the introductions went by quickly, with minimal disruptions until it came around to Cabin 7. Atsumu’s name is called and he climbs onto the stage, but when Eito doesn’t leave the microphone and begins to announce another name, he freezes on the spot, halfway through a step.

“Sakusa Kiyoomi,” Eito calls out and Sakusa steps onto the stage behind Atsumu. If he thought the world was ending yesterday, then surely the universe is imploding on itself at the present moment. He can’t bring himself to take a breath or move his leg from a surely stupid position. Atsumu can’t bring himself to do anything except stand perfectly still until Sakusa walks past him, not dignifying him with any acknowledgement. Maybe Atsumu wasn’t on the stage at all and this was simply a dream. But, he couldn’t afford for this to be a dream.

Atsumu snaps out of it and shakily approaches the microphone. Sakusa stands off to the side and that’s enough of an invitation for Atsumu to speak first.

“Hello campers,” He begins, trying to steady his shaky voice. “I’m Miya Atsumu and I am excited to be yer counselor this year.”

Atsumu loved attention, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything more than that, so he relinquished his microphone privileges in favor of staring at his oh so interesting sneakers. Sakusa steps up to the microphone, but he is too far for his voice to properly fill the amphitheater, only worsened by his facemask. Atsumu doesn’t tell him that.

“My name is Sakusa Kiyoomi,” Sakusa says, simply.

Eito ushers them off of the stage and they walk towards the exit of the amphitheater silently. Kids begin to stand and head over towards the two former friends, but Atsumu is too busy feeling anxious to be excited. Soon, all of the kids have arrived and Atsumu leads them outside for a roll call. 

“Gather around!” Atsumu calls and the kids do as he commands silently. They haven’t met each other yet, so it's natural to him that they're quiet and reserved. Sakusa hovers nearby Atsumu, his own list in his hands. Atsumu clears his throat and begins his roll call.

“Asaka Tohaku.” A small boy with brown hair and freckles raises his hand meekly.

“Fukasawa Isaki.” A tall girl with her hair in a tight ponytail raises her hand and yells out  _ Here! _

“Hamano Kojiro. Katayama Kiku. Masaki Jun. Miyasaki Anzai. Nishihara Kioshi. Sawada Seika. Takahashi Kenji. Tanabe Satoshi. Toda Satomi. Watanabe Kaori. Yamasaki Takechi. Yogi Azumi.”

After every kid was accounted for, Atsumu and Sakusa led the kids to Cabin 7 to get them settled in. As soon as Atsumu opens the door, the kids race past him, claiming bunks with loud declarations of dibs. The blond chuckles at the sight, even holding the door open for Sakusa to walk in. He supposes that the kids have lightened his mood, but he had expected that. 

When Sakusa makes a bee line for the bunk underneath Atsumu’s, he realizes that no, Osamu didn’t randomly make the bottom bunk in sheets that he’s never seen before. It was Sakusa’s bed and  _ Oh my god, Sakusa slept here last night _ . Atsumu shivers at the thought of Sakusa hearing him crying in his sleep, but brushes it aside. He can’t ruin their friendship anymore than it already is, so no harm done.

Atsumu settles on checking to make sure that everyone is settled in. He’s roped into helping a few of the campers make their beds and does so happily, all while Sakusa watches from his bed. Now that makes the blond mad. While Atsumu is being as helpful as can be, Sakusa can’t even get up off of his bed to help. So, in true Atsumu fashion, he marches over to their bunkbed and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Ya could at least pretend to help,” Atsumu says, hostility present in his tone. Sakusa looks up at the blond from where he is sitting with furrowed brows and a twitch of his lip that betrays him. However, Atsumu doesn’t have the time to feel anything other than anger at the curly haired man. 

Instead of replying, Sakusa stands up and rummages through his bag. Atsumu is about to say something when Sakusa pulls out a pair of rubber gloves and walks away, towards the quiet boy from earlier, and begins to help him make his bed. If that wasn’t odd enough, Sakusa makes a pointed effort not to touch anything. Atsumu frowns, but decides to get back to his job.

Once they’re all settled in, Atsumu checks his watch. They have thirty minutes before lunch, so he ushers everyone into a circle and declares that they’re going to play a game to get to know each other.

“This game is called two truths and one lie. We’re going to go around the circle and say our names and two true facts about yourselves and one lie,” Atsumu explains as he sits down. Sakusa grabs a blanket from his bed and sets it on the floor beside the blond before sitting down himself. 

“I’ll go first. My name is Miya Atsumu, but you guys can call me Atsumu. I have a twin brother named Osamu, I was born five minutes before Osamu, and my hair is actually black,” Atsumu rattles off two facts and a lie, grinning at the intense thinking that the kids are doing in order to find out which one is a lie. They discuss amongst themselves, then decide on an answer.

“We think that the lie is that your hair is actually black!” One of the kids yells out and they all stare at Atsumu, as if he is their teacher giving them a grade.

“That is incorrect,” Sakusa interjects before Atsumu can say anything. The blond looks over at him, his mouth slightly agape. He doesn’t bother to close it.

“Miya was born five minutes  _ after _ Osamu,” Sakusa tells the kids and they all nod their heads enthusiastically, as if Sakusa was incredibly smart for knowing such an odd fact about Atsumu. The blond huffs in annoyance at the fact that Sakusa still remembers that, but doesn’t dwell on it as the game continues. 

Sakusa is the last to go.

“My name is Sakusa Kiyoomi. Please call me Sakusa. I am fluent in French, this is my natural hair color, and my favorite color is red,” Sakusa tells the group.

Atsumu hates that he immediately knows which one is false just by watching Sakusa’s face as he talks. His nose crinkles ever so slightly when he lies; the movement is so small that he’s certain no one else in the room saw it, so he says nothing and waits for the kids to reach a consensus. They guess correctly and are overjoyed. 

“Alright guys, let's head to get some lunch!” Atsumu announces, standing up and clapping his hands together. The kids all scramble to their feet and grab their belongings before following the blond to the dining hall. Sakusa heads up the rear, making sure all of the kids are together and no one is wandering off. Atsumu notices that the gloves are gone from his hands.

The dining hall is by far the biggest and newest building on the campground, much to Osamu’s pleasure. He worked as the chef and he wouldn’t shut up on the way to the camp about how nice the facilities were going to be. Atsumu is a little sad that he won’t get to eat with his brother during lunch, but he knows that he’ll find himself in good company. At the very least, he has Suna. 

Once all of the kids are inside the cafeteria, Atsumu grabs some food, waves to Osamu, then heads over to where Suna is sitting with Bokuto, Akaashi, and Kuroo. 

“‘Tsum-’Tsum!” Bokuto gets up, wrapping Atsumu up in a big hug. Before Atsumu can choke, Bokuto lets go. Progress.

“Hey guys,” Atsumu greets, sitting down next to Suna, who smiles with a mouth full of food.

“We were talking about our cabins,” Akaashi informs Atsumu, who nods in appreciation. Atsumu got along well with Akaashi, when the blond wasn’t spouting dumb shit and insults left and right. The raven haired man wouldn’t hesitate to call him out. Akaashi was quiet and calm, the polar opposite of both of his leeches. 

“Our campers are the best!” Bokuto proclaims, going off on a rant about how sweet and kind they are. Atsumu decides to tune him out in favor of eating the food on his plate. The food wasn’t amazing, but it was certainly better than the food they had when Osamu wasn’t the cook. Osamu’s cooking was top notch and even better at home, when he didn’t have to make huge serving sizes for an entire summer camp.

“...Earth to ‘Tsumu?” Suna’s voice brings him back to the present conversation and he blinks, looking at his friends staring at him.

“Huh?” Atsumu asks, ever so eloquently.

“We were asking if you were okay with Sakusa-san being your co-counselor,” Akaashi tells Atsumu, taking another bite of his salad. The blond purses his lips, weighing his options. He could be honest and his friends would worry about him and try to switch assignments or he could skirt around the truth enough that they will be satisfied and leave him alone.

He decides on option two.

“Well, it certainly is weird. He wouldn’t help out with any of the kids when they were making their beds earlier until I asked if he could help. And, get this, when he decided to help, he pulled out rubber gloves and would only help with his gloved hands,” Atsumu tells them, the words spilling out of his mouth like vomit. He liked to talk and sometimes he just couldn’t help him.

Everyone at the table looks baffled at that, minus Akaashi, but he wasn’t very emotive in the first place.

“Rubber gloves?” Kuroo asks, as if he heard Atsumu wrong the first time.

“Rubber gloves,” Atsumu confirms. “And when we were all sitting down in a circle, he put a blanket down first and wouldn’t move off of it.”

“That’s...weird.” Suna shoves another bite of food into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. Atsumu nods in agreement.

“And he’s fluent in French, so I think the rumor Oikawa was telling us earlier is true,” Atsumu continues. “I think he went away to France.”

“France?” Bokuto’s eyes light up. “That’s so cool! I want to go to France someday. It looks so beautiful. They say cool things like  _ hola _ !”

“Bokuto-san, that is Spanish.  _ Bonjour _ is French,” Akaashi gently corrects him as Kuroo bursts out laughing at his friend’s mistake. Bokuto wails, putting his hand in his face and mumbling about how he would die in France. While Atsumu thinks the jump from mistaking the word for hello in two languages to dying in a foreign country is very, very large, it isn’t improbable for Bokuto. Atsumu is surprised he’s lasted this long in Japan, to be honest.

“It’s alright, buddy,” Kuroo eventually begins to comfort Bokuto after his laughing fit has ceased. While they are distracted, Suna turns towards Atsumu with an unusually serious expression on his face.

“You promise that you’re alright?” Suna asks, his eyes narrowing as if he was threatening Atsumu. Atsumu gulps.

“I promise,” He lies through his teeth and instantly feels bad about it. But, if Suna began to worry, then Osamu would, too. The blond was an asshole, but he wouldn’t deprive his brother and his friend of a good summer just because his ex-more-than-best-friend came back. He’ll get over it eventually. Or at least he hopes he will.

Suna gives him one more look, then nods and returns to his food. 

-

Atsumu was rather pleased to see that his cabin was scheduled for volleyball as their first activity of the day. There was absolutely no way for Sakusa to ruin this for him.

The group quickly make their way across the dirt road towards the indoor recreational center with Atsumu in the front and Sakusa in the back. He was pleasantly surprised that they quickly figured out a way to herd the children, but also was angry that he and Sakusa still worked so well together; time didn’t deteriorate their nonverbal communication skills. Atsumu opens the door to the facility, allowing everyone, including the curly haired menace, to enter before him. 

While all of the children say various versions of thank you, Sakusa says nothing.

“Alright kids!” Atsumu exclaims, motioning for them to gather around. “Today we’re going to be playing volleyball. Raise yer hand if ya have played before.”

About half of the kids raise their hands eagerly and Atsumu grins. He turns to Sakusa, who has surprisingly taken off his mask.

“I’ll take the kids who have experience, since I play volleyball still,” Atsumu tells Sakusa, puffing out his chest in pride. Sakusa raises an eyebrow, not impressed in the slightest.

“I played volleyball while I was abroad. I will take them,” Sakusa tells Atsumu, already signalling the kids with their hands raised to follow him over to the other side of the court and leaving Atsumu behind.

_ Oh, so he wants to play this game? _ Atsumu thinks to himself, grinding his teeth in anger.  _ Two can play. _

“Alright kiddos! Let’s learn how to play some volleyball!” Atsumu announces to the inexperienced kids, who are in varying levels of excitement and nervousness. Atsumu leads them over to the court, bringing over a ball cart for convenience. While he has never taught anyone how to play volleyball, much less seven and eight year olds, Atsumu was certain it wouldn’t be  _ that _ hard.

“Everyone pair up and we’ll pass the volleyball back and forth,” Atsumu instructs, handing out volleyballs to each pair of kids. They begin to spread out and start and Atsumu feels very proud of himself, despite not having done anything except telling them what to do. However, before he can get comfortable, he feels a tap on his leg.

“Atsumu-san?” Nishihara asks, her voice quiet. Atsumu looks down, realizing that he had an odd amount of kids. He mentally hits himself over the head, his previous pride disappearing in favor of embarrassment. 

“Lucky for you, Nishihara, ya get me as yer partner!” Atsumu plays it off like that’s what he had planned all along, grabbing a volleyball from the cart. The young girl is none the wiser, likely because she is seven years, but Atsumu will take the win.

“O-Okay!” Nishihara replies, walking a little distance from the blond before turning to face him. She clumsily puts her arms in position, causing Atsumu to chuckle and put the ball down.

“Put yer arms more like this,” Atsumu instructs, showing her how to do it. She watches and mimics him, her mouth slightly ajar as she focuses. Once Nishihara feels good with her arms, she gives Atsumu a tame smile, nodding her head.

“I’m ready,” Nishihara tells him and Atsumu picks up the ball to begin. He lightly bumps it to her, making sure that it isn’t too hard. He isn’t used to controlling the amount of force that he uses this much. Atsumu was never a particularly gentle kid, always shoving Osamu with his full force when they played. He only decided that he needed to regulate it when he wanted to become a setter and he needed to learn the right amount of force to use to get the ball in the perfect place for his spikers. 

Atsumu wishes he didn’t, but he remembers when Sakusa was one of his spikers. He briefly wonders if Sakusa’s preference for a set has changed over the years. Certainly the French play differently.

After a few times hitting it back and forth, Nishihara hits the ball wrong and it goes flying across the court, towards where Sakusa was. Atsumu sighs, giving Nishihara a reassuring smile.

“I’m sorry!” The girl all but yells, bowing deeply. Atsumu waves it off, knowing that he made that mistake plenty of times when he was first learning.

“No worries, no worries,” The blond reassures her, ducking beneath the net to go after the ball. The kids on the other side of the net were doing a similar drill, but some of them were even setting the ball to each other. Atsumu was pleasantly surprised.

He takes his eyes off of the kids and towards the ball, which is tucked under Sakusa’s foot, who has stopped passing the ball to stare at Atsumu expectantly.

“Keeping the ball safe for me, Omi-Omi?” Atsumu quips, smirking at Sakusa as he kneels down to pick up the ball. Sakusa’s dark eyes narrow at the old nickname Atsumu once called him, looking mildly perturbed.

“My name is Sakusa,  _ Miya _ ,” Sakusa corrects him, his voice subtly laced with venom that is undetectable to anyone except Atsumu. It takes more force than Atsumu thought it would to get the ball out from under Sakusa’s foot. Perhaps he should’ve waited to piss him off until after he got what he was there for.

“Right, Omi-kun,” Atsumu replies, standing with the volleyball tucked under his arm. He turns before Sakusa can reply, mentally noting the score on their game. 1-1.

-

Looking up the rockwall, Atsumu couldn’t help but be reminded of the time that he fell and hit the side of the wall a little too hard and broke his arm. He couldn’t help but be reminded of the shocked gasps of the counselors and the laughter of his twin brother. He never particularly liked this activity; he wasn’t fond of heights and if he were to be perfectly honest, he was traumatized by breaking his precious arm.

“I think I’ll do the spotting thing,” Atsumu declares, hoping that Sakusa doesn’t pick up on his anxiety. After all, he wasn’t there the year that Atsumu had his unfortunate fall. The curly haired man narrows his eyes, clearing his throat.

“I am not climbing that,” Sakusa tells Atsumu. The blond raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms.

“Well, one of us has to, and I said it first!” Atsumu argues. Sakusa reaches for the rope, fending off Atsumu’s advances with his clothed arm. 

“Miya, you are being childish,” Sakusa scoffs at him, letting the sleeve of his shirt slide over his hand in order to cover it enough for Sakusa to jab Atsumu in the side. Atsumu yelps, jumping away from the attack and the rope, allowing Sakusa to fully claim the job as his own. 

“Yer a real a-” Atsumu begins to spit out, only then realizing that they are at children’s summer camp with a group of kids watching them. His face reddens in equal parts embarrassment and anger, putting on a forced smile as he turns to the kids.  _ 2-1 Sakusa _ , He told himself.

“Alright everyone. I’m gonna help ya get yer gear on, then I’ll climb to the top first and help everyone zipline down,” Atsumu explains to the group, thoroughly unprepared to face his fears of breaking his arm again and heights. But, Atsumu certainly can’t let Sakusa win this one. If that curly haired asshole thinks that he can triumph over Atsumu, then he has another thing coming. 

Atsumu helps each kid get the proper gear on, securing it tightly to ensure that they are safe when they climb the rock wall. He takes longer than he needs to, which is probably what allowed the dread to fester and make a home in the bottom of his stomach.

Atsumu stares up at the wall, trying to swallow down his fear. It doesn’t work. He distantly hears Sakusa clip the rope onto his gear with a carabiner and make a snarky comment, but he is too consumed with his impending death to even consider making one back. The blond’s face is most certainly pale and his hands are definitely shaking, but he won’t let that dick win. So, he grabs onto the first climbing hold and begins his shaky ascent up the wall of doom. Atsumu distinctly remembers a former counselor telling him to look for a route to take and he does just that. He spots the necessary climbing holds that he needs to grab in order to safely reach the top.

He grabs a red one, hoisting himself up. His foot misses a green one, but he holds on tightly. His hands grope for a yellow one and he finds one. A red one. A yellow. Another red. A green. Atsumu slowly, hold by hold, makes his way towards the top of the death trap.

Atsumu almost cries with joy when he spots the top of the wall, only one climbing hold away. His hand reaches out for the yellow hold, but his foot slips.

Atsumu falls. His stomach falls with him and suddenly he remembers what it means to be terrified. He thought he was scared when Osamu forced him to watch that shitty American horror movie a few months ago or when Suna had almost crashed their car or when his parents sat him and Osamu down last year and told them that they had to talk to them about something important. None of that compared to the feeling of falling with your only hope being an asshole who probably wouldn’t mind if he died. He thinks about all of the things that he would say to Osamu if he was given one more minute of his miserable life. He mentally made a promise to the gods that he would be nicer, more tolerable if he could just not die here, not in front of all of these people in such an unfortunate way. Just a li-

“Miya, quit hanging there and get a move on,” Sakusa’s voice brings him back to what is actually happening. He wasn’t given the chance to fall more than a few feet, dangling a few climbing holds down from where he fell. Atsumu begins to climb, forgetting about all of his promises to be better with each hold. Once he reached the top, he bowed and even smirked at Sakusa, whose facial expression didn’t change, but the blond counted it as a win nonetheless.  _ 2-2, asshole _ , Atsumu mentally spat.

One by one, the kids begin to climb up the rockwall with the help of Atsumu and Sakusa guiding them. As soon as one arrives at the top, Atsumu clips another carabiner to their gear and sends them down via the zipline. The routine repeats until all fourteen kids have gone up and down and Atsumu’s watch reads 4:23.

He clips himself into the zipline and flies down, quite proud of himself for conquering a few year long fear. The wind in his hair helped him feel more dramatic and dashing. When Atsumu reached the ground, he unclipped himself and walked over to where the kids were sitting in the shade with Sakusa, who was standing and talking to them.

“You guys have a free period after this,” Sakusa is telling them after Atsumu arrives, the latter running a hand through his hair.

“Omi-Omi and I will be running the kayaking, if any of ya will be there,” Atsumu tells the kids, checking his watch again. “Alright, it’s time for choice time, go on!”

The kids all tear off in different directions, leaving Atsumu and Sakusa alone by the rockwall. The blond dramatically motions for Sakusa to walk first, in a faux gentlemanly mannerism. The curly haired man doesn’t acknowledge this, walking off towards the lake. Atsumu rolls his eyes, jogging to catch up with him. They spend the walk in complete silence, but Atsumu is glad that they don’t speak. He isn’t quite sure that he knows how to speak to Sakusa or what even to talk about. Sure, he could come straight out of the gate with  _ why did ya promise me that ya will always be here, kiss me, then leave? _ but that was a lot and Atsumu wasn’t even sure that he could handle that answer now anyways.

The choice time passes quickly, with Atsumu helping the kids get the kayaks while Sakusa focuses on keeping a log on who is going out and at what time. Atsumu mocked him for not helping, but that didn’t elicit a response, so he dropped it and didn’t try to talk to the raven haired man again for the entirety of the hour and a half. 

After the choice time was over, Sakusa basically bolted away from Atsumu, leaving him to put all of the kayaks away by himself. He almost wishes that the curly haired man would’ve pushed him into the water or done something other than that.

Atsumu sighs, locking up the shed and beginning the walk to the dining hall for dinner. He shoves his hands in his pockets, looking up at the darkening sky. Before he knows it, Atsumu arrives at the dining hall. It’s bustling with activity, kids and staff chatting with each other. The blond grabs a plate of food, looking around the room for Suna. He spots the man sitting with Oikawa, Iwaizumi, and Daichi in the far corner.

Atsumu walks across the dining hall, waving hello to his campers when he sees them. When he reaches Suna, he plops down and begins to shove food into his mouth rather aggressively.

“Atsu-chan!” Oikawa greets him, grinning. Atsumu raises a hand in greeting, too tired and hungry to stop eating to speak. Suna gently knocks shoulders with him as a  _ hello _ .

“How was your choice time, Atsumu?” Iwaizumi asks him, taking a sip of his water. Atsumu swallows his food, then begins to speak.

“It was alright. Pretty quiet,” Atsumu tells them, shoving another bite of food in his mouth. “How was y’alls?”

“Daichi almost got shot in the leg with an arrow,” Iwaizumi comments, the man in question groaning in remembrance. 

“Aren’t the arrows blunt?” Suna asks, a little worried but mostly intrigued.

“They are, but they still hurt,” Daichi tells the table, as if he’s speaking from experience.

“I can imagine,” Suna hums.

Atsumu finishes his food in record time, standing up to throw it away. Everyone begins to pile their trays on his, giving sheepish smiles as he rolls his eyes.

“Yer all lucky I like ya,” Atsumu jeers, walking off. Oikawa sticks his tongue out at him and the blond considers giving him his tray back, but he decides against it. As he throws all of the food away and puts the trays on the conveyor belt, he spots Osamu walking out from the back of the kitchen.

“Oi, ‘Samu!” Atsumu calls out, making his way towards his unsuspecting brother. The grey haired twin looks around, his eyes eventually settling on his bratty carbon copy.

“What’s up, ‘Tsumu?” Osamu asks, snacking on an apple. Atsumu rolls his eyes.

“Nothin’, nothin’. Just wanted to see how the kitchen was treating ya,” Atsumu tells him, slinging an arm around his brother’s shoulder as he leads them towards the dinner table. Osamu lets Atsumu do this without a struggle, likely because he knows that Suna will be there.

“It’s alright. Suga is good company,” Osamu tells him as they arrive at the table, the rest of their friends present greeting them with a wave and a chorus of  _ hello _ s. As they sit down, the conversation picks back up and Atsumu briefly forgets his worries.

-

Atsumu’s worries aren’t forgotten long as the entirety of the camp meets at the lake after dinner for the annual sky lantern release. Atsumu and Sakusa have gathered their cabin and all of their camper’s hopes. Sakusa even wrote one down at the request of a camper and put it in the lantern. Atsumu stared at his wrist, contemplating taking off the bracelet and tying it onto the lantern.

He isn’t given much time as the director of the camp asks the counselors to line up with the cabins on the left side of the dock to begin the ceremony. Cabin 1 goes first, with Akaashi walking onto the dock and releasing his cabin’s lantern into the sky. The campers and Bokuto cheer loudly as it floats up and away and Akaashi returns to his cabin, leading them to the right side of the dock and out of the way of the rest of the campers. The rest of the cabins go up, the same reaction being elicited from the excited kids who believe in the magic of the ceremony. Atsumu would be lying if he said he didn’t believe.

When it’s Cabin 7’s turn to go up, Atsumu is the one to walk onto the dock to release the sky lantern. On his way up, he quickly unties the bracelet and ties it to the lantern.

“Bring back Kiyoomi,” Atsumu whispers, releasing the lantern into the sky. It floats away, joining its friends in the sky. Atsumu watches it go, the cheering from his cabin being drowned out in favor of listening to the water. Atsumu wrote down a hope as well, but it was hopelessly generic. He wrote down that he wants this summer to be the best one yet. The piece of paper wasn’t big enough for him to write out what he really wanted to. He wanted to write that he hoped Sakusa would come around or that Sakusa would apologize and explain why he left Atsumu to fend for himself for five years without so much as an explanation. He hoped for a lot of things, but he couldn’t write any of them down. He sighs, then walks off of the dock, giving high fives to his campers as they gather on the right side of the dock.

Sakusa doesn’t look at him for the rest of the night.

After all of the campers are gathered in Cabin 7 and asleep, Atsumu can hear Sakusa toss and turn. The blond says nothing, letting sweet sleep take over his body.

-

The next morning, Sakusa is gone from the cabin before Atsumu even wakes up, returning with wet hair when the blond jumps off of his bunk bed. They don’t speak, but Atsumu knows that it's his turn to go shower, so he gathers his stuff and heads out without a word spoken. Even with all of the campers in the room, as asleep as they may be, the tension in the room was unbearable and Atsumu was unsure how he was going to spend every day for the rest of the month like this.

He checks his watch, seeing that he only has thirty minutes to get ready before Atsumu needs to be back to wake up his campers. He speeds into the staff bathhouse, all but jumping into the shower to avoid Bokuto’s grabby hands in the morning. He loved that man, but he liked to hug way too much way too early. Atsumu gets done with the shower in record time, pulling on his clothing for the day while simultaneously trying to brush his teeth. He spits out the toothpaste, running the toothbrush under the water with one hand and styling his hair with the other. Atsumu checks with watch, noting that he has a mere five minutes before the campers are supposed to begin to wake up, so Atsumu throws all of his stuff in his shower caddy and bag and takes off, leaving the nearly empty bathhouse behind. He arrives at his cabin a minute before 8:00 AM, breathing heavily but grinning happily. 

The blond puts all of his stuff away, turning a nice morning song on when the time hits 8:00 AM to help the campers wake up. Sakusa, who is sitting on his bed, raises an eyebrow at the song choice, causing Atsumu’s cheeks to warm up. He can’t help his love for girl groups, Red Velvet’s  _ Happiness _ echoing on the walls of the cabins as the kids begin to stir.

“Problem?” Atsumu asks Sakusa, a teasing lilt in his tone.

“Didn’t know you were a girl group fan,” Sakusa comments, his tone annoyingly neutral. Atsumu rolls his eyes, walking around the room to ensure that everyone is beginning to wake up and go get ready for the day. 

As the next song begins to play, all of the kids are up and going to the bathhouse. Atsumu begins to absentmindedly dance to  _ Russian Roulette _ , mumbling the words under his breath. Not that he would ever admit it, but he spent too long learning the dance with Suna two summers ago, with Osamu giving them judging stares as he watched. Atsumu knew that Osamu loved the song, too, but he would never admit that to Suna.

Only when the song ends does he realize that Sakusa was watching the whole time with a smirk on his face. Atsumu’s face heats up and he opens his mouth, but no words come out. 

“Nice moves, Miya,” Sakusa says, the emotion in his voice unreadable, but Atsumu doesn’t miss the slight tease. Atsumu, despite his fiery cheeks, puts his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face.

“Like what ya see, Omi-Omi?” Atsumu jeers.

“Not in the slightest,” Sakusa replies, pulling out a nail file to clean up his already perfect nails.

“Aw, it’s okay to admit it, Omi-kun,” Atsumu continues to tease. Sakusa opens his mouth to speak, but a camper walks back into the cabin and their conversation is forgotten, the normal amount of tension and awkwardness retaking the conquered territory.

Once all of the campers are back at the cabin and the time passes, the counselors lead their campers to the dining hall for breakfast. Sakusa splits off, moving to sit with one of his cousins, Komori Motoya. Atsumu glances over at them before sitting with Suna, Akaashi, Oikawa, and Kuroo. Kuroo has an arm over Akaashi’s shoulder, using his hand to hit Oikawa every so often.

Atsumu sits down with his breakfast, eating it slowly while listening to the conversation at the table. The schedule for the day was the same as the day prior, with a morning activity replacing the opening ceremony. 

“Where’s Bokkun?” Atsumu asks, his mouth full of eggs. Suna cringes, jabbing the blond in the side to get him to shut his mouth. This backfires, causing him to yelp and nearly choke on the scrambled eggs.

“Bokuto-san went to sit with the kids today,” Akaashi explains, leaning into Kuroo’s chest, who has abandoned attacking Oikawa in favor of playing with the shorter man’s hair. 

“He basically is one of the kids,” Oikawa jokes, but he is one to talk, as he is wearing an  _ I Want To Believe _ t-shirt and an alien hat. Everyone stares at him for one, two moments in silence before returning to their conversation.

“What?!” Oikawa cries out, immediately going to check his face in a spoon to ensure that there’s nothing on his face. 

Breakfast is over quicker than Atsumu wants it to be and he bids his friends farewell before joining Sakusa outside of the dining hall. Slowly, their kids gather around and they set off towards the outdoor basketball court. Behind the counselors, the kids are chatting happily and Atsumu smiles to himself, proud that they’ve already begun to become more social with each other. 

Once they reach the basketball court, Atsumu looks over at Sakusa.

“How about we play another name game? We get in a circle and toss the ball to someone, but ya have to say their name when ya throw it,” Atsumu suggests and Sakusa nods, keeping his mask secured on his face. Atsumu tells the group to circle up and he grabs a basketball, bouncing it.

“We’re going to play a name game. When ya toss the basketball to someone, ya have to say their name and when ya catch it, ya gotta say a cool fact about yerselves!” Atsumu explains the rules and all of the kids look excited to play. He bounce passes the ball across the circle.

“Katayama,” Atsumu calls out as she clumsily catches the ball. Katayama takes a few moments to think of a fact, then lights up.

“I have a cat named Tiger!” She exclaims, then looks around the circle and tosses the ball. “Tanabe.”

Tanabe catches the ball skillfully and Atsumu thinks that he must play basketball at school. 

“Um...my favorite animal is a giraffe,” Tanabe tells the group, passing the ball. “Yogi!”

The game continues until the time is over, the kids getting into it a lot more than Atsumu thought they would. By the time it’s over, Atsumu knows a lot more about the kids in his cabin than he ever thought he would. He knows that Masaki is actually half German, that Sawada has a pet lizard named Sawada (it was already named that before he got him), that Toda can speak English, that Asaka wants to be a zookeeper when he’s older. Atsumu is pleasantly surprised at every fact, even listening (a little bit too) intently when Sakusa would give a fact about his life.

Atsumu finds lunch a good escape from his own emotions.

When the afternoon comes, Atsumu checks the schedule to see what activities Cabin 7 was put down for. Canoeing and archery, two activities that Atsumu was okay at. He nodded in approval, shoving the schedule back in his pocket as he clapped his hands and led the group down the path, towards the lake. Sakusa stays at the back of the group this time, ensuring that no one in the group gets the wise idea to wander off. Once they arrive, Atsumu unlocks the shed, beginning to hand out life vests to all of the kids. While Sakusa helps them all put them on and checks to make sure that they’re secured, Atsumu pulls out the canoes and groups everyone in threes, leaving two of the kids without a third. After sending the groups out, the blond looks over at Sakusa.

“I’ll go with them, if ya don’t wanna. You can get a kayak or stay at the dock,” Atsumu offers. He would like to say he did it out of the kindness of his heart, but in reality he just wants to be on the lake in a canoe.

“I’ll watch from the dock,” Sakusa answers all too quickly. Atsumu narrows his eyes in suspicion, but the curly haired man has already pulled a towel out of his bag, set it on the dock, and sat down to watch the canoes. Atsumu shrugs, letting the kids get in the canoe before pushing it into the water and jumping in after them. He begins to paddle, leading them farther and farther away from the shore.

All of the kids seem to be having a fun time, occasionally trying to splash each other by using their paddles to kick up water. Atsumu even lets himself get pulled into it after his battle canoe is attacked by two others.

“Captain, what do we do?!” Takahashi cries out, getting soaked from the water.

“Incoming!” Asaka meekly calls out, ducking so that the incoming water attack hits Atsumu instead.

“Ya two focus on attacking, I’ll get us outta ‘ere!” Atsumu commands, beginning to paddle as fast as he can. His two trusty sailors begin to splash up water at their attackers, crying out in a true warrior fashion. Atsumu speeds them out of the direct line of fire and towards the dock, where Sakusa is watching with an amused grin on his face. 

They fly across the water, like a waterstrider, the wind making friends with their hair. Atsumu knows that his hair will surely look crazy after this, but he can’t bring himself to be upset with that when the kids with him are laughing wildly and happily. The canoe reaches the dock and Atsumu clutches onto it, allowing the kids to climb out.

“Go, go, go!” Atsumu orders and the kids comply, helping each other exit the canoe and run to the grass, clutching each other as they laugh.

Atsumu stands, trying to get out of the canoe himself. However, he was laughing too hard to maintain a steady balance, causing the canoe to tip over and send Atsumu face first into the water. Once the blond is fully submerged, he contemplates staying under forever and dying here, which is surely better from dying from embarrassment on the dock. Atsumu decides that he doesn’t want his brother to have to find his bloated body any uglier than he already is at the moment, so reammerges, shaking his hair out of his face like a dog. Sakusa has stood up, now laughing at Atsumu at the edge of the dock. The blond can’t help but laugh with him.

Atsumu sends the canoe over to the shore before swimming over to the dock, looking up at Sakusa.

“A hand, Omi-Omi?” Atsumu asks, grabbing onto the edge of the dock. Sakusa, who is stifling laughter, raises an eyebrow and walks off the dock, towards the grass.

“Oi, rude!” The blond yells after him, pulling himself out of the water and onto the dock. He grabs the towel that Sakusa left at the edge of the dock, drying his hair off as the rest of the campers arrive at the dock. Atsumu helps them out, sticking his tongue out at them as they laugh at his soaked clothing. Once everyone is out, Atsumu begins to pull the canoes out of the lake.

“Omi-kun, go ahead and bring them to the archery range. I’m gonna put these away then change,” Atsumu tells his co-counselor, already bringing a canoe over to the shed. Sakusa’s eyes aren’t on his face, but on his white t-shirt that is sticking to his body. Atsumu smirks at this and Sakusa looks away, his face red. Before the blond can even begin to make a snarky comment, the curly haired man leads the group towards the archery range.

Atsumu quickly finishes putting the canoes away and heads off to Cabin 7 to change his clothing. He changes in record time, toweling off as he does before running to the archery range, where Sakusa has begun to teach the kids how to properly shoot a bow. Atsumu always knew the curly haired man was good at archery, like he was good at most things, but seeing him all grown up, shooting the bow and arrow with leather gloves on did things to his poor heart. He shook of the thought, reminding himself just how much of a prick Sakusa really was, his nice body be damned.

“Miya, nice of you to join us,” Sakusa greets him, handing off the bow to a kid for them to try. Atsumu gives him a lopsided grin.

“Missed me, Omi-kun?” Atsumu jokes, crossing his arms over his chest and winking. Sakusa grimaces, turning back towards the kids to help them.

Atsumu tries to shake Sakusa out of his head and begins to help his campers. He tries, but fails.

-

“So, you fell in the water?” Suna asks Atsumu at dinner, causing him to groan and cover his face, his hair still damp from the traumatic event earlier.

“Yes, I fell in the water,” Atsumu confirms, his voice low and embarrassed. 

“So, it’d be on the security footage,” Suna wonders aloud, tapping his chin before taking another bite of his dinner.

“Ya better watch yerself, Rin,” Atsumu threatens, taking his hand off his face and pointing it at his friend. Suna laughs at him, unbothered by the threat of violence, likely because he’s heard them way too many times to be bothered by it. Tonight at dinner, it was just Suna and Atsumu, as their friends were sitting elsewhere. 

“So, how are things with Sakusa?” Suna asks, raising an eyebrow at the blond. Atsumu sighs, running a hand through his hair.

“It’s fine?” Atsumu shrugs, unsure of how else to describe it. “I still don’t like ‘im, but we get along just fine.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t caused a big scene yet,” Suna tells him, half-joking, half-serious. Atsumu is surprised, too. He doesn’t have the best track record with subtlety and it's not exactly a secret among the staff that the two counselors were once peas in a pod. Sakusa’s return has stirred up a lot of unwanted emotions in Atsumu and he knew that it was only a matter of time before he broke and lashed out at his former friend and said something true, yet stupid. 

“I’m behavin’, I’m behavin’.” Atsumu holds his hands up, causing his raven haired friend to roll his eyes. 

“Try to keep it that way, yeah?” Suna says, standing up and holding a hand out for the blond’s tray. He complies, giving it to him. Whilst Suna is gone throwing away the trash, Atsumu checks his watch. Dinner is almost over and the camp will begin another tradition that happens every night, except for Sundays, which is reserved for a camp wide dance. Every night, several campfires are lit around the campgrounds and the campers are allowed to hang out at them, which have different activities going on: ghost stories, marshmallow roasting, singing. Atsumu loved to perform at these, so he always brought his guitar to play. All of the counselors took turns running the campfires and taking breaks, where they could go relax without being bombarded by children.

Suna returns to the table with Osamu in tow and the three of them set out to grab Atsumu’s guitar from their car. While Atsumu loved seeing all of his camp friends, he loved his brother and his friend more than anyone else. He typically spent his free time with them and never felt like he was third wheeling. Once they grab his guitar, the trio heads off to the campfires, which have already been lit in preparation for the nightly festivities. 

Osamu and Suna wave goodbye to Atsumu as he sits down at a campfire with his guitar. He rolls his eyes as Suna drags his brother to go find some marshmallows. The blond opens his guitar case, pulling it out and strumming a few times to make sure that it's properly tuned. He makes some small adjustments as kids begin to gather around, excitedly waiting for Atsumu to begin playing.

Atsumu strums once more before beginning to play  _ Fireflies _ by Owl City. He sings along, his voice joined by those kids who know the song. Even some counselors join in.

Atsumu loved to play his guitar and sing. Besides volleyball, this was one of his only outlets for all of the emotions that he felt after Sakusa left him. Volleyball tended to worsen his feelings, as he used to be able to practice and play with his curly haired friend. Music never did, music was his own thing. He dabbled in writing songs, but never showed them to anyone, not even Osamu. The topic was always Sakusa and it was too personal for anyone to hear but himself. Not many of his friends back home knew about his talent and he preferred to keep it that way. Music was his escape.

The song ends and the campers clap and sheer, shouting out song recommendations. Atsumu happily complies.

When the night is over, Atsumu lays in his bed, staring at the ceiling. Sakusa is as restless as the night before and this time, so is Atsumu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how did you like the chapter?? let me know in the comments!
> 
> if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for fun camp activities, pls don't be afraid to tell me below. i love to hear from people about my writing and fics.
> 
> thank you for reading! pls leave some kudos!

**Author's Note:**

> hi! how did you like it? leave me a comment and some kudos!


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